Composite Sticks and Toe Picks: Epilogue
by LifeiscrazybutIamsane
Summary: Post-Olympics, a heart-broken Maura Isles returns to Boston and to her paramedic job, while Jane Rizzoli throws her body back into contact sports in an attempt to destroy herself.


_Right off the bat: This story is dead._

_I initially deleted it in a purge of everything I'd written, and then managed to pull together a large amount of the prose by working a ton of Google, but then I reread it again before I was going to go through and fill in the parts I hadn't been able to dig up. Following that read, I deleted the file again, and this time it's staying that way._

_I might have been able to make it work if I had done more of a story map prior to fleshing it out, but I only did a very basic skeleton (with no solid ending) before beginning updates. Which meant it was far too fluid, and became far too melodramatic, as I knew kind of where the characters were going to end up in terms of development, but felt a bit pressured to write in the developments and put in big conversations far too early. As well, secondary storylines that should have been followed up on (i.e. both parental storylines) were going to be too rushed/forced if I was able to fit them in at all (and to be happy with how the story played out I was going to have to fit them in). Biggest of all, I meant to handle the Anti-LGBT storyline, but couldn't quite work out how to write it believably, and in dropping it made the entire story less believable._

_There's currently another fic in the pipeline, which is getting fully written prior to publishing so this doesn't happen again_

_If you are at all interested in how Composite was supposed to play out, a brief overview of what happened following the last chapter and an epilogue are below._

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- Maura goes with Jane to the hospital, while doped up on painkillers Jane tells Maura she loves her

- The following day Jane tells Maura how scoring her first goal made her fall in love with hockey and stick it out after a bad experience of a first season. She gives Maura the puck from that goal that she still carries, tells her she should skate in the exhibition gala

- Maura ends up skating in jeans and Jane's hockey jersey to an acceptably cheesy pop song (because at this point why even be anywhere near the realm of believability)

- They spend their last couple days in Sochi studiously avoiding referring to the inevitable separation and making out a lot

- Maura brings up the hospital 'I love you' as the Canadian team is about to board their flight home, Jane panics, says it was the drugs talking, and bolts onto the plane, leaving Maura crying in the middle of the airport. Cut scene.

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**February 28th, 2015 - Boston, Mass.**

Maura wedged her hands under her arms, willing some warmth back into her frozen fingers. She hadn't originally been scheduled to work the Crashed Ice night, but for the past year she'd worked as much overtime as she could scrounge up and when one of the other medics had offered up a shift she'd pounced on it. Of course, she really should have thought it through, because she'd been stuck out in the minus twenty degree weather for the past four hours. The freeze was uncharacteristic of Boston but the skaters loved it; every athlete whose broken bones she'd set had completely ignored their injuries in favour of raving about the quality of the ice, and it made her absolutely jealous.

She'd hung up her skates for the last time the day after she'd arrived home from the Games, tucking them away in storage with her medals and costumes, and hadn't stepped back out on the ice since, instead devoting all her time to work. When she was asked about it, she refused to admit how much she missed it, how not skating felt like emptying herself out until there was nothing left. She'd wave it off, say that she'd felt it was time to move on, but there was always something left unstated. The fact that if, she laced up her skates again, she'd remember falling in love with the sport. And then she'd remember falling in love with Jane.

The puck from the hockey player's first goal, she's ashamed to admit, has taken up residence in the bottom of her trauma bag, nestled between gauze and tape, bringing a smile to her face every time she sees it. The gifted jersey was shoved away beneath the rest of the kit she brought back from Russia, but that puck, and everything it symbolized, was by her side almost twenty-four hours a day. A reminder to take chances and stick with things, and a reminder of how she'd failed to do such in the year since Sochi. She'd looked Jane up when she returned to Boston, had typed the number into her phone on seven separate occasions but had never gotten up the nerve to make the call, and so the last image of Jane she has is the brunette turning her back and fleeing in Moscow, leaving Maura sobbing in the middle of the airport.

Static from her radio broke through her reminiscing, and she tuned in the receiver. "Isles, get down to Tent Two, broken wrist and possible concussion." She replied that she was on the way and jogged through the crowd in the direction of the finish line, peeling off her mitts and pulling on latex gloves as she made her way under the canvas.

"Chris, where do you need me?" Her partner pointed out a lanky figure across the room, an athlete who was arguing fervently with the nearest Red Cross volunteer.

"-it's _fine_, I don't need a medic, I've got a semifinal to compete in! Can't you just tape me up and send me back out?" The familiar voice was half-whine and all business, and it stopped Maura in her tracks. This was the last thing she would have expected to happen tonight.

"You can ask the paramedic about that," the volunteer mumbled, pointing at Maura, and the skater spun, brandishing a swollen wrist.

"This looks fine to you, right?" Their eyes met, and Jane stopped in her tracks. "Hey," she whispered, dropping her gaze and toeing at the ground with the tip of her skate blade.

"Sit down." Jane dropped heavily in the chair behind her. Maura took her wrist in her hands, probing gently until she found a spot where pressure caused Jane to wince. Careful examination revealed additional painful areas, and Maura came to the conclusion that Jane had broken the styloid process off of her ulna.

She stated as much, and Jane shook her head wearily. "I just can't catch a break."

Maura pulled a penlight from her pocket and took Jane's chin in her hand, watching her pupils as she directed the light. "The Buddhists might refer to this as karma."

Jane scrunched her nose and nodded. "It's no more than I deserve. I'm really sorry for how I left things." She reached out and rested a hand on Maura's arm. "Is there anything I could do to make it up to you?"

"Track my finger." She passed her hand in front of Jane's face, and the hockey player struggled to follow the movement. "Go to the hospital, get that casted, and get a second opinion on your head; you might be concussed." Jane put on a mock pout and Maura shook her head. "Anything else you could have done should have been done a year ago."

"I was an ass."

"You were."

"I never meant to-"

"Yet you did."

Jane groans in frustration. "Maura, please, just let me say this. I've been kicking myself ever since that airport; you're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I just gave up and walked away. I want to make this right with you, _please_."

She reached to the table behind her and grabbed a pen and scrap of paper, scribbling down her contact information. "Here's my number, call me or don't, ball's in your court. I'm in love with you, Maura Isles, and if you'll give me the chance I'd like to spend the rest of my life proving that to you."

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**February 20th, 2016 - Calgary, Alberta**

Jane stretched her arms above her head and grinned at the satisfying crack from her shoulder blades. She'd spent the better part of two hours dragging gear out of storage and onto the ice, and her body was a wreck. She slowly made her way over to the bench and hopped up beside Frost.

"You ready?" He nudged her shoulder, barely holding back a grin. "I can't believe you're going through with this."

She rolled her eyes, shoving him back in return. "I think so." Her face turns sombre. "I'm scared, though. Terrified, if I'm going to be honest."

He slings his arm around her shoulders. "You've got absolutely nothing to worry about, Rizzo. Come on, go get changed. Maura Isles waits for no woman."

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Jane kept turning to make sure Maura had kept the blindfold on, and couldn't help but grin at the confused look on her girlfriend's face. "We're almost there, just a couple more minutes." She flexed her hands nervously on the steering wheel then reached out and laced her fingers through Maura's.

"Why won't you just tell me where we're going?"

"'Cause I want it to be a surprise." She signalled her turn and entered the parking lot, coming to a stop and hopping out a moment later. She circled the car and opened Maura's door, taking her hand again and leading her towards the arena.

Jane nodded to the arena worker as they passed by, mouthing her thanks, and he gave her a thumbs up. She led Maura into the nearest dressing room and guided her down onto the bench. "Can you get skates on without looking?"

"It'd be better if you tied them," Maura replied, gnawing at her lip. "Are we at the Winter Sport Institute?"

Jane pulled off Maura's sneakers and slipped on her skates. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yes, I would."

"Sorry babe, not yet." She pinned Maura's skate blade between her thigh and laced it up quickly before attacking the other. She took a minute to don her own pair and then stood and led Maura out the door and onto the ice surface. "Alright, now you can look."

As she watched Maura remove the blindfold and survey the ice with a smile that slowly turns into a full-fledged grin, she can't help but recall the terse phone call that led to this moment. She'd been sat in the emergency room waiting for a trauma surgeon to look at her wrist when her phone had rung. She'd almost dropped it in her haste to answer, the unknown number sending a rush of hope through her, and she'd nearly cried when it was Maura on the other end.

_"I can't let you slip by, no matter how much I want to."_

_"Let's get breakfast, my treat."_

They'd convened at a 24-hour pancake place after her shift, her wrist done up in a plexiglas cast and Maura forced to cut her meal into bite-sized pieces for her. The breakfast date had led to lunch, and then to dinner, then to weekend getaways, and Jane still wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to convince Maura that she was in her league.

"Jane, will you play for me?" Maura gently grabbed her wrist and tugged her towards centre ice, to the baby grand she and Frost had wrestled out earlier in the day. The arena lights went dim as they sat down at the piano, and Jane takes Maura's hands in hers.

"Up until two months ago, I hadn't played since before I met you. After Moscow I dug myself into a really dark place, and then last year I couldn't not with the broken wrist. But after Christmas with you, when I wasn't in pain any more, when I felt whole, I thought it was the right time to start again. You fill me up with all this light and this joy and make me into a better person and I wanted to be able to share that."

"Two years ago today I told you I loved you for the first time, and maybe it was because of the morphine, but all I could hear was this song. Maybe it was 'cause I knew you'd skated to it that day, I don't know..." Her ramble petered out and Maura nodded encouragingly, motioning towards the keys.

_Habanera_ spilled from her fingers, slow at first and then all at once. She was nervous about the improvisations she'd written in, knowing Maura was all about the sanctity of music, but one glance at the blonde told her she'd made the right choice; her face was filled with a beautific smile.

As the last notes resounded through the empty arena she dropped her head and inhaled deeply, her nerves finally settling. "Thank you," Maura whispered, leaning her head against Jane's shoulder, and Jane turned and pressed a kiss against her temple.

"I love you." She reached into her pocket and removed the box that had felt hot against her skin all night. "I love you more than anything or anyone in this world, Maura Dorothea Isles." She slipped from the bench onto one knee and opened the case. "I would be honoured if you would be my wife."

Tears came first, followed by a nod, and then another. Maura was laughing and crying and when Jane stood and took her into her arms there was only one way to describe the feeling. After two years and thousands of miles, she was finally where she belonged. She was finally home.


End file.
